2016 Birthday Challenge

I was very saddened to hear that my good friend Steve Edwards finally lost his battle with cancer on Feb 25 last month. I met Steve way back in my Santa Barbara days. He was a strong and influential climber in our community as well as a talented athlete in many other disciplines. He was also an avid film buff and went on to produce a film about young kids climbing El Capitan in Yosemite Nationa Park. I felt lucky being hired to shoot video of the ascent. As always, he made it a fun and enjoyable experience for all of us.

One of the many wonderful memories I have of Steve was his endless pursuit of the Birthday Challenge which he developed and even started a website for (check out: http://www.birthdaychallenge.org).

As I'm turning 61, in Steve's honor, I have decided to undertake my first birthday challenge. In typical Steve fashion, mine will be a multi-day, multi-activity birthday challenge and I will invite anyone to join me in any part of this endeavor.

I will be posting the activities and the appropriate duration/length shortly. It is going to include: birding, downhill skiing, biking, running, hiking, rock-climbing, push-ups, sit-ups, and whatever else I can think of squeezing into 6.1 days (all things multiple of my 61 years). The biggest challenge will be figuring out how to 61 of anything as I'm am older and weaker. Another challenge will be working around the weather to get all the challenges completed in the 6.1 days.

No matter what happens, most importantly, I will be thinking of Steve at every twist and turn. Thank you Steve for being a bright spot in my life!

In the meantime, have a look at this very nice tribute to Steve Edwards posted in Outside Magazine online, written by my old buddy Hans Florine. As I mentioned before, Steve was the originator of the Birthday Challenge, and the reason I am doing this challenge. Well done Hans!

Ok, here's the plan for my Birthday Challenge,
In 61 hours over the next 6.1 days I will attempt to:
Photograph 61 different species of birds,
Ski downhill 61,000 vertical feet,
Bike and hike 61 miles,
Run 6.1 miles,
Do 61 push-ups each of the six days,
Do 61 sit-ups each of the six days,
Rock climb 610 vertical feet at 5.10 or higher difficulty,
And try to have fun doing it all.
I've already got folks signed up to participate with me so feel free to join in.
In memory of Steve Edwards, a kind and talented man whose company I enjoyed immensely.

March 11, 2016 10:28p

Day One of my Birthday Challenge was today. I was able to photograh 30 different species of birds and road-biked 32.86 miles then sit-ups and push-ups. I'm trashed already. Five more days???
Climbing in Boulder Canyon tomorrow with my good friend Chris Archer, a mileage day. We'll see how THAT goes!

March 14, 2016 9:52p Birthday Challenge update.

Day two was my actual birthday and I had a fabulous day rock climbing and catching up with my good friend Chris Archer. Always the perfect tour guide for this kind of thing, he took me up to the Lower Animal World Buttress in Boulder Canyon and we quickly dispatched six climbs completing the requisite 610 ft. of climbing. Actually, after totaling the length of the routes, I think I might be shy about 30 ft. but can take care of this bouldering later this week.

Day three was spent recovering from the significantly more than 6.1 oz. of Tequila consumed the night before ( a newly added birthday challenge goal) but I did squeeze in 3 miles hiking and 8 more photos of the 61 bird species I need to get.

Day four (today) was the toughest birding I think I have ever done. My goal was to get the remaining 22 bird pictures today to complete my goal. I decided to head up to Barr Lake near Brighton, CO. It's always a good place for diversity, with a guarrenteed Bald Eagle and a variety of waterfowl. What I didn't count on was the wind picking up and putting all the birds into a lockdown. They were all hunkered down wherever they could find a spot out of the 30-40 mile an hour wind, making it difficult to see much. I was able to get 31 species but only 9 of them were ones I hadn't seen on Friday.

The consolation was at least I was biking while birding and I got another 13 miles toward my bike and hike goal.

March 23, 2016

What I learned during my Birthday Challenge: Mind Over Matter doesn’t always work!

Now that the 6.1 days of my Birthday Challenge are over, I realize I bit off more than I could chew.

Things I did accomplish:

1) 61 different species of birds photographed. This turned out to be the most time consuming of the challenges and I barely completed it in the 6.1 days allotted. I actually saw 71 species but some were just too camera shy and/or wouldn’t sign the release form so I could post their picture.

2) 66 miles biked and hiked. The 33 miles on road bike were not too bad as the weather was warm and pleasant. In contrast, only 3 days later, the 12 miles I rode on the mountain bike was done in conjunction with birding so I had my 500 mm lens and camera dangling around my neck. Furthermore, just after starting the ride around Barr Lake, the wind started to pick up and by the time I reached the far side of the lake, wind speeds were 30 to 40 mph with gusts reaching 49 mph. I believe it ranks as the toughest bird outing I have ever done. The remaining 21 miles was hiking, again mostly with my 15 pound camera setup around my neck to get bird pictures, but at least the conditions were better!

3) 615 feet of rock climbing averaging more than 5.10 difficulty. 590 ft of this was roped climbing with my friend Chris Archer but needed to go bouldering at Morrison to get the remaining 25 ft to complete the challenge

4) At the last minute, I added two consumption challenges as per pressure from followers.

a) I consumed more than 6.1 oz of fine tequila. Not sure exactly how much more as mental faculties were not optimal for measuring at that point.

b) Thanks to Annette who was the provider for this challenge, I consumed more than 6.1 pieces of delicious birthday cake (i.e. carrot cake, my favorite) during the 6.1 days.

Things I partially accomplished:

1) 65,800 vertical feet of ski descent, however, due to fatigue and difficulty getting all of the bird photos, I only had skied 33,800 feet by the end of the 6.1 days. I had to extend the challenge an extra day to go skiing to get the remaining footage.

2) I tried to run the 6.1 miles but failed early on as my recently worsening asthma made it too difficult to continue.

3) With all the other activities I was trying to accomplish, I was only partially successful at doing the 61 sit-ups and push-ups. Over the course of the 6.1 days I averaged about 30 of each per day.

Thanks for all the moral support!

Check out the photos here of my 61st birthday challenge. Thanks for the inspiration Steve Edwards!!! May your memory live on for a very long time.